RBG’s Death Exposes Bigger Problems with American Government

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a twenty-seven year Supreme Court judge famous for her fiery dissent opinions and pioneering work in gender equality as a lawyer, passed away two weeks ago. She was 87. Source.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away at her Washington DC home on September 18, 2020, sparking an outpouring of grief, support, and panic. Justice Ginsburg is largely considered a feminist icon, a woman whose work has shaped the courts dramatically over the past few decades. Her death is a tremendous loss to the United States and the legal community. She spent her career arguing cases before the Supreme Court of the United States for many years before she was appointed to the highest court in the nation by President Bill Clinton in 1993. Throughout her life she was a strong advocate for women, pushing the courts to recognize that discrimination under the basis of sex should be barred under the 14th amendment.  Justice Ginsberg lived a life full of the kind of groundbreaking accomplishments that most can only dream of achieving. Her life deserves to be contemplated and honored, but instead of being able to do so, the United States has been launched into a debate about the political and legal ramifications an opening on the Supreme Court so close to an election has. 

 Minutes after the news of her death broke, the United States was deep-diving into a debate about whether or not the Senate should hold a vote for her successor to the Supreme Court--all the more intensified after President Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat only six days later. This jump to discuss her successor was reminiscent of a similar debate held in February of 2016 when the death of Justice Antonin Scalia created an opening on the Supreme Court. At the time, the  Republican controlled Senate would not hold hearings on  President Obama’s nominated successor, claiming it was too close to a presidential election which was nine months away at the time. Now, the Republican-controlled Senate is rushing to have hearings for President Trump’s nominee, less than forty-five days before the next presidential election. 

Since the news broke, quotes and videos from politicians in 2016 on the merits of nominating a justice to the Supreme Court in the last year of a presidential term have been circulating to the point of virality on both sides of the aisle. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has come under particular fire for  his comments on the exact scenario we find ourselves in now, when he said this in 2016: “I want you to use my words against me. If there's a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said, ‘Let's let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination.’” In an impudent reversal, just twenty-four hours after the death of Justice Ginsberg he committed to confirm Trump’s nominee--commenting “I am certain if the shoe were on the other foot, [Democrats] would do the same.” 

Besides the troubling hypocrisy of Republicans, this watershed event has also exposed fundamental, underlying issues with the structure of American government. The fact that the death of a single woman on the Supreme Court launched lawyers, political experts, and everyday citizens into a panic over the state of civil rights in America is indicative of a much broader problem with the state of checks and balances in American politics. When America perceives the weight of the freedoms of the marginalized to sit on the hunched shoulders of one (validly critiqueable) eighty-seven year old woman, we must question the power we have instilled in her, her colleagues, and the Court at large. Maybe the Democrats could have done things differently. Maybe, as critics have noted, Justice Ginsberg should have retired in 2010. Or maybe, as Rebecca Traister wrote for The Cut: It shouldn’t have all come down to her.   We must question what system of government is so fragile that its legitimacy can be questioned following the death of a single person. When the rights and freedoms of millions of Americans are at risk because our system of government has allowed the minority party to control all three branches of government for the better part of two decades, and install a lifetime of partisan, conservative control in the court, there’s a problem. It’s no wonder Justice Ginsberg’s life cannot be properly celebrated-- her death put American democracy at risk. 

The current state of American democracy is so flimsy that we cannot even celebrate the life of Justice Ginsberg without the dark shadow of politics looming over. The corruption of the Trump administration, coupled with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic and the heightened tensions of an election year has intensified many people’s focus on our current political system. Americans are realizing just how fragile our system is, and how much fundamental change we really need. Justice Ginsburg certainly deserves more respect and celebration than our country has the bandwidth to give her. Instead, we must reckon with the consequences of her death and attempt damage control.